Re: [gentoo-user] portage bug?

[Nick Fortino]

Daniel Iliev wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
> Would anybody, please, confirm the following behavior before I file a
> report with B.G.O?
>
>
>  % emerge -C dev-perl/yaml
>
>  % emerge --depclean -p
>
> [-snip-]
>
> Calculating dependencies... done!
>  * Dependencies could not be completely resolved due to
>  * the following required packages not being installed:
>  *
>  *   dev-perl/yaml pulled in by:
>  *     perl-core/Module-Build-0.28.08
>  *
>  * Have you forgotten to run `emerge --update --newuse --deep world`
>    prior
>  * to depclean? It may be necessary to manually uninstall packages that
>    no longer
>  * exist in the portage tree since it may not be possible to satisfy
>    their
>  * dependencies.  Also, be aware of the --with-bdeps option that is
>    documented
>  * in `man emerge`.
>
>
>
>
>  % emerge --update --newuse --deep world
> Calculating dependencies... done!
>
>>>> Auto-cleaning packages...
>>>>
>
>
>>>> No outdated packages were found on your system.
>>>>
>
>
>
It's not a bug, it's counterintuitive expected behavior. The pointer to
the answer is buried in the error message: "Also, be aware of the
--with-bdeps option that is  documented in `man emerge`"

In summary, dev-perl/yaml is a build dependency of Module-Build, and
therefore not strictly required. By default, to be safe, depclean
expects it to be there. Since Module-Build is already installed,
however, by default emerge won't pull it in, because it shouldn't be
necessary. Hence, the behavior you observe.

You can file a bug if you wish, but make sure to do a full search, as
there are misunderstandings of depclean all over b.g.o.

Nick